RAY BRANDT, Volunteer, of Boise, Idaho, first became associated with the sport December 27, 1958, when he and his family spent Christmas visiting relatives in Roseau, Minnesota, where he was born and raised. It was then Edgar Hetteen, a boyhood friend, convinced Ray to take his initial ride on one of the new snow machines.

That winter, following a trip to test these new machines in higher elevations and steep terrain of the West, Edgar had the occasion to leave a machine at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He suggested that Ray pick up the sled and spend the rest of the winter testing it. Before the next season, he became a part-time dealer and salesman for Polaris. Ray visualized the possibilities of this new machine not only for sales to utilities, governmental agencies, farmers and other work-related users but for fun as well. To promote the "fun," in 1962, he organized a week long snowmobile safari across a range of mountains in central Idaho, terminating in Sun Valley. This was well-documented and was memorialized in the Polaris-Western Powered sports classic film/video "Winter World of Adventure." Later he established a Polaris distributorship which covered the western United States.

Ray saw the need for a strong local club and state snowmobile association combination to battle for the new sport's survival. So in 1965, he took the lead in the formation of the Western Snowmobile Association. He was personally involved in establishing a number of snowmobile organizations and associations in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California/Nevada, Western Chapter of the International Snowmobile Council, and a founding member and past president of the Iron Dog Brigade.

He has also been actively involved in countless issues concerning public land use or access, either in the forefront or behind the scenes. As a result of his more than thirty years of involvement with the sport, he has also been the recipient of numerous snowmobile-related awards. As a volunteer, he has given unselfishly of his time and talent in many ways to benefit the sport. Service clubs and governmental entities have also benefited substantially from his involvement and participation.

DON DABBS, Volunteer. The love of the great outdoors inspired him to preserve snowmobiling on Colorado Public Lands.

In 1969, Colorado Congress was going to outlaw snowmobiling, however, Mile Hi Snowmobiling Club, through representation of Don Dabbs, asked Congress to postpone it until 1971, when the present laws were passed.

In 1975, a bill to move a snowmobile registration to the Division of Revenue was defeated by testifying before the legislative committees. The same bill was introduced and promoted by Don Dabbs to move the snowmobiler to the Division of Parks along with $29,000 as start up money. We were successful. He testified before 2 committees.

In 1977, a bill was introduced to return the registration fees back to snowmobilers. Don was right there! After 2 1/2 months of monitoring and testifying, this was accomplished.

A state snowmobile newsletter was started in 1977, with mailings to individuals progressing to the present Snow Scoop newspaper in 1981. Don was publisher doing the paper until the Spring of 1985.

To fight Wilderness closures and promote snowmobiling, Don and his staff went to the Colorado State Fair in 1978, 79, 80 and 81. They were successful in getting the amount of land lowered from 6 million acres to 1 1/2 million.

In 1979, Don was appointed to a Resolve Committee. By then, Governor Dick Lamm and the Regional Forester, Craig Rupp, went to work on the Wilderness conflict. They met 2 times a week 4 hours each night for 6 weeks.

For the 5 years, Don was president of Colorado Snowmobile Association, he averaged going to a meeting on Wilderness every 2 weeks. By Don's recommendations, we were 65% successful in reducing Wilderness boundaries.

In March 1981, the first Colorado State Snowmobile Tour was organized and led by Don, inviting out-of-staters to join the tour and experience the wonderful snow of the Rockies. This annual event is still going strong and very successful to pull in out-of-state sledders.

In January 1982, Don had a discussion with a Senator to agree on an intern committee study when snowmobilers were again threatened with losing the whole snowmobile program. He made his presence known to the committee in September and by testifying gained several vital items for snowmobilers.

Don urged a club to have coffee at the State Capital for legislators and other V.I.P. 's. This happened 4 years ago and each year thereafter. This is a very important tool of communications with the people who represent us in the state government.

Snowmobiler Clubs, get your names out in the public, and let them know what we are all about, Don said. So several are in the adopt-a-highway litter program.

Snowmobile Safety Education program to qualify snowmobilers targeted towards the youngsters was initiated by Don and he became an instructor. This program is still being used.